The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-06-13
THE STATE TREAsURER.s REPORT.

| desirable by contrast.
| THE STATE TREAsURER's REPORT.
| There seems to be no end to Democratic
trickery. Whatever may be said of the party
managers in other respects it must be admit
ted that they have shown remarkable ability
in devising and executing tricks to falsify the
record of the late Legislature and State Of
fcers. The latest one discovered is that in con-
nection with the report of ex- Treasurer of State
| Cooper. For several weeks past the Sentinel
| has been reiterating the charge against Secre-
tary of State Griffin, of willfully violating the
law in emitting to publish an abstract Of the
| Treasurer's report in connection with the acts
of the Legislature The conclusive answer to
the charge was that report of the State
Treasurer was submitted to the General AS
sembly as required by law. The Governor
had made no reference to it in his message,
and the State Auditor had never verified it.
Therefore, the Secretary of State had no Of
fetal information of the existence of a report.
Outside of the record the facts were that
the 10th of December last Treasurer of State
ported to be his annual report, and on the
next day the Gov vernon referred it to the Au-
ditor of State for verifcation according to law.
Auditor of State Rice refused or neglected to
verify the report on account of a discrepancy,
and it remained without verifcation until last
Friday. Here were three distinct violations of
law. First, the law requires the Treasurer of
State to lay his report before the General As
sembly the first day of the session; this
was not done. Second, the law requires the
Governor to lay the report before the General
Assembly Immediately after the organiza-
tion;" this was not done. Third, the law re-
quires the State Auditor to verify the report
of the State Treasurer, and this not done.
Now comes the new trick. After all these
violations of law had become matters of record,
and after the report of the Treasurer of State
had lain in the Auditors Office six months
without being verified, it was thought best to
patch up the record. So, about fortnight
since. Mr.. Joseph Bingham, who was deputy
under ex-Auditor Rice. went to the Auditors
office and obtained the Treasurer's unverifed
report. After keeping it about two weeks he
returned it on Friday, the 10th inst. with an
Endorsement of considerable length signed by
James III. Rice, setting forth in detail the dis
crepancy which had prevented him from veri-
flying the report. The statement thus in
dorsed on the report is not a veriication, but
an explanation; and it is not signed by the
Auditor of State, but by James FL. Rice,
as an individual, and it affixed several
months after Rice and Cooper had gone out
of Office The Endorsement bore no date the
intention seeming to be to slip the report
back on the files so that when referred to here
after it would be found to have Rice's indorse-
ment as if made before he went out of office.
The fact is that James III. Rice, a private
citizen, on the 10th day of June, 1887, had no
right to put the scratch of pen on the re-
port and his act in this regard comes very |
near falling under the penal statute relative
to mutilating public records. OF the gross |
improperly of the act there can be doubt.
The criminality is not clear, though it
would require but slight stretch of the law |
to make it Sc. The evident intent was to
patch up the record for political purposes. and
to do this ex-Auditor Rice resorts to the very |
risky scheme of making entry several |
months after he had gone out of office. But |
the game did not win. It was blocked by |
Auditor of State Carr, who made an indorse-
ment on the report that the statement of J.
III. Rice was placed there June 10, 1887.
The report then went to the office of the
Secretary of State, where it should
that officer Endorsed it, 1.-THE within
report of ex Treasurer Cooper was for the
first time transmitted to the Office of the
Secretary of State and filed therein this 18th
day of june 1887, at II o'clock, noon" The
record therefore, shows that Secretary of
State Griffin never had the Treasurer's report
in his possession until June IL; that the
Democratic Governor, Treasurer of State and
Auditor of State all violated the law in re-
spect to the Treasurers report, and that Mr..
James H. Rice, ex-Auditor of State, at
tempted to fix things up by mutilating a
public record, and making an entry several
months after he had become private citizen.
This bit of Democratic trickery is in keeping
with others of similar character that have
come to light during the past few months,
the continued discoveries of which keep the
people wondering what they will do next.
THE celebrated Tichborne case is brought
to public notice in England once more by the
rightful heirs coming of age. Twenty years